Moving Chemistry Education into 3D: A Tetrahedral Metaphor for Understanding Chemistry. Union Carbide Award for Chemical Education

The triangle of thinking levels that has become the dominant metaphor for chemistry education has served us well. As that metaphor reminds us, students need to encounter chemistry at the macroscopic, submicroscopic, and symbolic levels to make sense of the molecular world. Yet concerns about public understanding of and trust in chemistry, coupled with the need to continue to attract students into the profession, underscore the importance of framing chemistry education in new ways. This article proposes a new conceptual metaphor to enrich our description of chemistry education and support the many existing efforts to help students make connections with the chemistry found in textbooks. It proposes a metaphorical rehybridization of that triangle of thinking levels into a tetrahedron, where the fourth vertex represents the web of human contexts for chemistry. Tetrahedral chemistry education may reenergize learning inside and beyond the classroom by (i) providing a framework for curriculum reform, (ii) focusing on the processes of science, (iii) "discovering" the history and philosophy of chemistry, (iv) building trust in and public understanding of chemistry, and (v) reaching across cultures.